A bridge spans the St. Vrain River near Highway 119. A stream gauge is located nearby. (Times-Call)

In the arid west, where "whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting," as the saying goes, stream gauges play a critical role in making sure the liquid gold that is water is distributed appropriately.

With the beginning of the irrigation season only weeks away, state and federal agencies are still scrambling, six months later, to put the stream gauge system back in place after so many were wiped out or damaged in the flood last September.

Stream gauges are used by hydrologists to monitor and test bodies of water.

The state's Division of Water Resources, which operates dozens of stream gauges in the areas affected by the flood, in some cases is having to install temporary, or "surrogate" gauges, until permanent replacements can be put in, according to Russell Stroud, lead hydrographer with the division.

"Within the St. Vrain Basin, from the Continental Divide all the way to the confluence with the South Platte, the state operates 13 stream gauges," Stroud said.

A similar ratio of gauges monitor other tributaries affected by the flood: Boulder Creek, the Cache La Poudre and the Big Thompson.

"We had 29 stream gauges that suffered some damage, from complete destruction to some with minor damage that was easily fixed," Stroud said.

He added that seven of those 29 were wiped out, "and when I say completely destroyed I mean there was no indication that that stream gauge was ever there."

Because of funding and logistical issues, there is no possibility of being able to complete all the replacements or repairs necessary by the time irrigation season starts next month, Stroud said. So, his department is having to rank them by cost of repair or replacement, their priority and the ability to provide a permanent fix rather than just a temporary one.

With limited resources, Stroud said, his department wants to avoid spending a great deal of money on what he calls "surrogate" gauge installations, only to spend more later to put in a permanent replacement.

An example is a gauge in Lyons that sat just below the confluence of the north and south St. Vrain. The flood took it away, and a new, permanent one won't be put in until the riverbank is completely repaired in that spot. But because of the critical nature of that location, a temporary gauge had to be installed, Stroud said.

The cost of completely replacing a stream gauge depends on a variety of factors, he said, but basically the larger channels require more infrastructure which equals a higher cost. The price range can be anywhere from $30,000 to near $100,000, Stroud said.

The 29 damaged or destroyed gauges does not include ones the state operates but that are owned by a municipality, such as the city of Longmont.

"We didn't have any gauges that got wiped out," said Ken Huson, the city's water resources manager. "We had just put in a new gauge (that survived the flood) downstream of where Ken Pratt Boulevard runs over the St. Vrain."

Huson said that about 80 percent of the stream gauges from the Divide east to the flatlands are operated by the state, and the rest are owned and operated by the U.S. Geological Survey. The state and U.S.G.S. share the data they collect.

"We have gauges on most of the major mountain tributaries that flooded — Boulder Creek, the lower St. Vrain, Big Thompson, and the Cache La Poudre," said Bob Kimbrough, associate director for the U.S.G.S.'s Colorado Water Science Center. "We're making repairs to about 15 gauges in the South Platte Basin. Of those, nine are total rebuilds."

Kimbrough said it was important to get those gauges back on line by the time the irrigation season starts next month, but another side affect of the gauges being down is that stream flow data are not being collect. That data is used for reference's sake for years to come, even during low-flow times such as the winter, but the flood of 2013 has put a hole in the state and federal government's meticulous record-keeping.

"The gauges are designed to provide information year-round, so the information we're losing now (is lost forever)," Kimbrough said.

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